Charlize Theron Adopts

Charlize Theron Adopts, Actress Charlize Theron has adopted a baby boy and will raise the child as a single parent, according to news reports.

The Oscar-winning actress’ spokesperson announced the adoption Wednesday. “Charlize Theron has adopted a child. She is the proud mom of a healthy baby boy named Jackson,” the statement said, according to The Huffington Post. No further details were released.

Theron publicly expressed her desire to have a child without having to tie the knot in a 2008 interview, the Post reports. So just how common are single-parent adoptions?

Charlize Theron’s adoption as a single parent may not have been possible even as recently as the 1970s, when such adoptions were illegal in some states.

But that’s changed, and now single-parent adoptions are allowed in every U.S. state, according to the University of Oregon’s Adoption History Project.

About 5% of adoptions are to single parents. That includes 25% of adoptions of special-needs children.